String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
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SMETANA
String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Pavel Haas Quartet
[ Supraphon / CD ]
Release Date: Saturday 20 June 2015
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
Following their 2014 Gramophone Award-winning recording of Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' and the Quintet in C major, the Quartet are returning once again to the work of a Czech composer.
On their new CD the Quartet will be playing Bedřich Smetana's Quartet No. 1 in E minor 'From My Life' and Quartet No. 2 in D minor.
Pavel Haas Quartet was formed in 2002 and bears the name of Pavel Haas (1899-1944), a Czech composer of the first half of the 20th century. Since 2004 the Quartet has won many prestigious awards, including first place in the Prague Spring International Music Festival, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice, the MIDEM Classical Award, and three Gramophone awards.
Gramophone wrote that the Pavel Haas Quartet "represents the best qualities of the Czech tradition - warmth, sonorousness, individuality, intensity.
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2016 Finalist - Chamber
'The Pavel Haas Quartet have already set new standards with their Janácek and Dvorák. Now it's the turn of fellow countryman Smetana, and once again the results are outstanding. Playing of real intensity and vivid detail brings out the drama and intimacy of these two highly personal quartets, and the musicians' innate understanding for the Czech composer's idiom shapes every nuance. It's hard to imagine these recordings being bettered.' (BBC Music)
"in their native repertoire they are well nigh incomparable. I have not heard an account of "From My Life"...that prepares us so starkly, in its turbulent opening Allegro vivo appassionato, for its tragic outcome...And it's hard to imagine a more compelling or harrowing take on the less frequently programmed D minor quartet." Sunday Times, 3rd May 2015
"The PHQ understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana's vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly - and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something. This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." Gramophone Magazine Award WINNER 2015 - Chamber
Tracks:
String Quartet No. 1 in E minor 'From My Life'
String Quartet No. 2 in D minor
